Please tell me about Lilith.

She was the first wife of Adam. Made equal from clay. She would not obey God by submitting to Adam. She fled the garden and was demonized. She had children maybe with demons and they lived outside of the garden.

I don't know how this stacks up to what is written but this is what I have been taught. So, please tell me about Lilith.

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FTM 2011/09/20

I edit for spelling and grammar.I hug randomly from acknowledgment to agreement and everywhere in between.

Comments (9)

Lilith is the original succubus. To explain why men had wet dreams, it was believed a succubus would come and have sex with a man while he was sleeping, and steal his seed to make demon children.

I read an interesting book during my Wiccan days that examined some of the negative female myths, and Lilith is the one I remember being discussed. The author pointed out that Lilith was created equal to Adam, and not derived from him. She also discussed that legend has it that her not 'submitting' to Adam involved her wanting to gain pleasure from sex, instead of just 'lying back and thinking of England.' It was an interesting treatise on how bronze aged male elders used this story to shame women who enjoyed sex and may have wanted to be a bit more adventurous in the bed sheets.

Momystilblessd - There has for a long time been issues with men having problems with women enjoying sex. Its why there is a cultural push in some countries to cut of female genitalia. Insecure men think that if their woman learns to really enjoy sex, then maybe she'll look to other men for sex as well.

Heck, it wasn't that long ago in our own western culture that the idea that women enjoyed sex was taboo and downright disgusting. A subtext of Dracula (the book) was about Victorian women figuring out that sex felt good. I remember in my psych class that I had to take in college that until the mid 60's, tests that measured pupil reaction for sexual arousal found most women were aroused not at pictures of men, but at pictures of brand new kitchen appliances. In fact, many women were disgusted at pictures of nude or near nude men. However, similar tests done post sexual revolution found the women they studied were now almost equally being aroused at viewing pornographic material almost to the same level as men.

Its not that Adam was bad in the sack, its just that a 'good' woman wouldn't enjoy it and just tolerate it. The tale of Lilith's expulsion from Eden and subsequent doom to live life as a demon were a warning to women of the time.

Lilith is the embodiment of a woman that enjoys sex and wants it not just for procreative reasons. If a man could find a woman who didn't like sex, she'd never want to have sex with another man, which would lead to her figuring out her first man was inadaquate, either in physique or methodology.

In some of what I read (don't remember where ftr), the reason Lillith defied Adam was that he insisted on her laying on her back to have sex, because he felt that she should be submissive to him, and she felt they were equals because she was created from the same thing he was, and refused to assume the submissive position

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"Don't do what you can't undo, until you've considered what you can't do, once you've done it" ~ Robin Hobb

I think Lillith is a really interesting story, because it is so absent in all the common mythology. I was raised catholic, and knew the bible stories, but never heard of Lillith.

I also loved reading the mythology of other old religions, but still never even heard of Lillith, until a professor in one of my Lit classes asked if anyone knew what was being referenced in "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" when the Beaver says the White Witch was not a "daughter of Eve" but a descendant from Adam's first wife Lillith. Then the class discussed the other mythology that CS Lewis was deriving from. I had no idea there was more story to Adam and Eve!